Between going AWOL in boot camp and joining the Army Air Corps to being threatened
with a court martial for trying to save the lives of Americans and for feeding hungry
homeless Italian families, it's hard to get a read on the kind of guy that George Scanlon
was. It is obvious that this airplane mechanic had authority figure problems, as he so
vividly describes, and he always seemed to be going against the grain as he served in
North Africa, Sicily, and Italy. But after seeing so many pilots crash and crews die,
perhaps George Scanlon softened up, because he didn't seem to be the same person at the
end of the war as he was at the beginning.